JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reduces Holdings in Ross Stores, Inc. $ROST

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) by 22.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,872,501 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after selling 3,693,839 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $1,961,651,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 2.0% in the third quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 112,442 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $17,135,000 after buying an additional 2,186 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ross Stores by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 20,017 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,052,000 after acquiring an additional 917 shares during the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ross Stores by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 534,247 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $81,414,000 after purchasing an additional 12,395 shares in the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ross Stores by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,057 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Ross Stores by 11.1% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,999 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore increased their price target on Ross Stores from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Guggenheim upgraded Ross Stores to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ross Stores from $188.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ross Stores presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $189.94.

Ross Stores Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of ROST opened at $196.54 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $187.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $166.60. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.36 and a 12-month high of $197.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $63.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.99.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 20th. The apparel retailer reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.20. Ross Stores had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 36.75%. The business had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.38 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.48 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. Ross Stores has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.380-6.46 EPS and its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.770-1.85 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 6.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Ross Stores Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 9th. Ross Stores’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.31%.

Ross Stores Company Profile

Ross Stores, Inc (NASDAQ: ROST) is an American off‑price retailer headquartered in Dublin, California, that operates the Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS store formats. The company sells a broad assortment of apparel, footwear, home fashions, accessories and other soft goods, positioning itself as a value-oriented destination for brand‑name and fashion merchandise at reduced prices.

Ross’s business model centers on opportunistic buying of excess inventory, closeouts, cancelled orders and overstocks from manufacturers, department stores and other suppliers.